


There And Bake Again

by WikdSushi



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Gen, I swear to Smaug this is a genuine cookbook
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-20
Updated: 2013-11-20
Packaged: 2018-01-02 03:55:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1052229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WikdSushi/pseuds/WikdSushi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Mr. Dori temporarily closes his restaurant in order to follow his brother (and, incidentally, King Thorin) to the other side of Middle-Earth, his chef, Sûkhi, goes on a culinary quest of her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There And Bake Again

In the Southern Blue Mountains, in the village of Bultkar, there is a restaurant. It has twelve tables, often booked months in advance, and on any given day you might be served river salmon, or suckling boar, or octopus cooked tender, or ratatouille cooked from the meticulous garden that surrounds the building on all sides. You may be served something of which you've never heard, or experience spices--such as the demons known in the East as _chiles_ \--you never imagined possible. You may even ask to see such spices for yourself, if only to fathom how things so tiny can cause, say, a venison shoulder to transcend mere food and become a communion with the Valar.

Every recipe is a secret, and insured accordingly. They _are_ available for purchase, however, if one is easily parted from his or her fortune. Lord Balin once asked to buy the apple tart recipe. The price quoted caused him to drain his full glass of wine and ask for an open window to clear the shock from his head.

The restaurant, formally known as The Purple Door, is mostly called Dori's, Dori being the owner. Naturally, he is the reason for the restaurant's incredible success. He keeps reservations, greets his patrons, chooses only the finest wines--he is, after all, a fine sommelier--and makes sure the place runs without a hitch. Of course, some of the credit must go to his brother, Ori, who comes to work every evening, his hands stained with ink from his recently acquired position as a journeyman scribe, and waits on customers, though his palate is dreadful. (The lad would rather eat greasy chips soaked in days-old tavern grease than the finest fennel salad or braised chard ever to see a plate!) Even a little credit extends to Dori's other brother, Nori, who turns up now and again to hide from the authorities regarding one thrill-driven crime spree or another. Without him, Dori would not have access to such fine vegetable seeds and fresh spices from the East; nor such a steady supply of wild mushrooms and truffles, a happy side-effect of Nori's habit of sleeping rough.

And once in a while, if a bit tipsy and feeling generous, Dori will extend a soupcon of gratitude to the final member of his staff: Sûkhi, daughter of Kûkhi.

Sûkhi is his chef.

That's worth a little recognition now and then, isn't it?

She has long since come to terms with Mr. Dori peeking over her shoulder and tasting everything, only to make suggestions based on, say, a blow to the head, or the wholesale removal of his tongue. When this happens, she closes her eyes, takes a deep breath--and imagines delivering her resignation via chopping knife, somewhere in the vicinity of Mr. Dori's liver.

When he left for Erebor, she did _not_ miss him. She did, however, miss. A very good thing, mind. His skull would no doubt have shattered her meat mallet. Thankfully, Nori was the only one who saw, and he only gave her a thumbs-up.

With the restaurant closed for the time being, and the garden being tended by a very nice Hobbit-dam who'd taken up with a miner and produced the ugliest children that side of an orc, Sûkhi found herself with a surplus of time. After all, with Mr. Dori ordering her about, all she'd ever had time for was the restaurant. And, of course, getting piss drunk with Nori now and again, as they shared some of the same opinions on the matter of That Meddling Arse. So she took a little while to think, and do a bit of cooking for herself.

And quickly rediscovered her childhood love of desserts.

Really, anything sweet. As long as it lay sticky on the tongue and warm in the heart, she loved it. Yes, she did some such cooking for The Purple Door, but she had always wanted to study sweets from all over the Dwarven world, and even beyond.

Which led to an idea.

Why should Mr. Dori be the only one to have all the fun of a quest?

The following is, in no particular order, the culmination of Sûkhi's quest. She set out alone with her accumulated savings--rather a lot--and a good pair of boots, along with some dip-pens, ink, and books. Rather than simply collect recipes, she opted to study King Thorin's quest, and document it somewhat in the medium of sweets, puddings, and afters. It took a very long time and a great deal of digging to get all of her information, and will take a great deal longer to produce the recipes in any reliable format. We beg your forgiveness for any interminable delays, but you must understand, Sûkhi is a perfectionist.

And if Mr. Dori makes any of his bonehead suggestions this time, he's finally getting a frying pan to the face.

**Author's Note:**

> This is what one might term an ambitious project. In the end, I plan to produce 40-50 original recipes, all for some sort of candy or other sweet nibble, one for each named character in Peter Jackson's _Hobbit_ movies. Some will be ridiculously simple, some simply ridiculous, and some will be genuinely advanced examples of baking, candymaking, and other forms of cooking, all from scratch. (Uh, save one. You'll see.) In several situations, I'm going to be working with some expensive ingredients and decorations, so those updates especially will be budget-constrained, and I'm on a profoundly limited budget to say the least. There's an excellent chance that alcohol will be involved here and there, so those recipes are considered adult. Sorry, kids. You'll just have to wait to try those (she said responsibly).
> 
> Please note that I have a medically restricted diet. Where recipes call for flour, I will be using gluten free out of necessity, though standard wheat flour should work in a 1:1 ratio. Additionally, there will be no peanuts or peanut products used whatsoever. (As much as I love cooking and my dwarves, I really don't want to die for them.) I'm not taking any kind of recipe requests or suggestions, but in some dietary restriction cases, I may be able to suggest alternate ingredients. Please note, I am not a health professional, so YMMV.
> 
> In any case, updates will likely be slow, and will come when I'm up to perfecting experimental recipes. However, I've wanted to write a cookbook for about 30 years, and if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it right.
> 
> \-- Sushi


End file.
